Sunday, June 20, 2010

Fathers in Our Midst

Many years ago, my father died, rather early in his life. But since then, I've been around men who are excellent fathers. . . and excellent nurturers. Here's one, sweet, sweet Robert, my brother, basking in the attention of one of his nieces, Joyce.

And here's another good, good father: the ever-playful Bill, casting his opinion on something important to his son, Andy.

And yet another fantastic father, my brother, Lee, who is ever-so-slightly older than me--just a smidgeon--not even a full year. Here Lee stands tall with his two wonderful sons, who seem to have also acquired kind, generous, personality characteristics that could make them wonderful fathers some day. Next to Dianna is the beautiful Maria. We all retreated to a room indoors just at the conclusion of Dianna's graduation. As names were being announced during the graduation, we noticed a subtle but certain speeding up of the announcements as black clouds and roiling thunder started to crash the party.

And this is, of course, one of my all-time favorite fathers, a man who leaves me absolutely flabbergasted by the depths of his ability to father and so very genuinely "be there" for our three children. This is a shot of him patiently waiting for our son to get dressed for Dianna's graduation, after having ferried said offspring back and forth across the city, from his own school commitment, back to his apartment. If there were an award for "Dad Transport Services," Doug has definitely earned it during the month of June (and our kids don't even live with us anymore!) Right now, Doug should be sitting in a lounge chair, with his feet up, watching a game on TV, but he's out zapping weeds, and possibly messing with a little gadget I bought him to zap bugs. (He may be nurturant, but he does have this Chief Defender Destructo-mode thing going on these days. Maybe it's all sublimation?)

Now, MaryAnn, the oldest of my little sisters, is certainly not a father, but she is clearly raising her son to be a loving guy--more potential good-father material in the distant future.